The USGBC Massachusetts Chapter "promotes the design, construction, and operation of sustainable buildings and communities in Massachusetts..." Here, we showcase what the community is up to: who we are and what we do.

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Friday, April 3, 2015

PACE & Resiliency

PACE Recap:

Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing & Resiliency

As the
senate prepares to review the newly minted bill on PACE financing this spring,
we would like to encourage our fellow green building advocates to review some objectives
of the bill, and to help share this information in your communities.

PACE financing provides property owners access to low-cost,
off-balance sheet capital, by way of a betterment lien placed on the property
and payable like a property tax bill. Across the nation, successful PACE
programs have provided a new and innovative way for property owners to finance
energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy projects, and water conservation
measures. The Massachusetts legislation also will allow property owners to
consider upgrades that include resiliency improvements to be PACE-funded. The
availability of this new tool for project finance will result in new projects
which will mean more work for people in the renewable energy & allied
industries of Massachusetts.

SD 1271 will make necessary improvements to the
Commonwealth’s current PACE program, creating a streamlined, centrally
administered PACE program that is capable of achieving economies of scale and
will be easily adopted by municipalities. The new program will require lender
consent and will focus on the pent up demand for energy efficiency and
disaster-resilience financing in the commercial and industrial sector. Commercial
PACE programs in 25 other states have accounted for $100 million in project
activity.

When
passed, the Massachusetts commercial and industrial PACE program will help:

To
learn more about how PACE programs work in other states see the PACEnow
annual report. To
learn more about existing resiliency efforts in Boston please see the Boston
Redevelopment Authority’s guidelines
for climate change preparedness and resiliency. Also available online is a 2013
publication titled Building
Resilience in Boston, which helps outline best practices for climate
change adaptation and resilience for existing buildings.